The 17-year-old was introduced as a substitute six minutes from the break after Accies had gone two goals down to the Parkhead side, and the youngster’s precocious contribution helped the Lanarkshire outfit come close to snatching a draw before going down to a 2-1 defeat.

Like the richly talented James McCarthy before him, the Scotland under-17 internationalist has been training with the New Douglas Park first team since the age of 15, and made his debut in April last year only a month after his 16th birthday.

Reid, who admitted the player had “lost his way” at one point in his development, believes Kirkpatrick has what it takes to be a huge success.

He said: “Jordan is a real talent. I don’t want to say what I think happened but he lost his way a wee bit and we put him back down to the under-19s.

“At 2-0 down on Sunday I thought it’d be a great idea to give him experience and I thought he could change the game. He’s always more than capable of doing that.”